Dragon in orbit as SpaceX launch opens new era

Paul Marks, senior technology correspondent

(Image: NASA)

After an agonising last-second launch delay on 19 May the commercial space flight company SpaceX today succeeded in launching its Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon cargo capsule into Earth orbit.

Ten minutes after a flawless night launch (video) from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, the Dragon had separated from its first and second stages and had deployed its solar panels. Dragon is now in orbit some 50 kilometres beneath the International Space Station, to which it should dock in a few days time.

The launch success opens a new chapter in space flight - one in which it is hoped nimble entrepreneurial companies with innovative ideas can compete and outgun big-spending government-run space agencies. The excitement at today's orbital achievement was palpable on Twitter, not least from SpaceX founder Elon Musk who tweeted: "Falcon flew perfectly!! Dragon in orbit, comm locked and solar arrays active!! Feels like a giant weight just came off my back."

The Obama administration, which has backed the new approach, saw the launch as a way to squeeze better value for money out of NASA: "Congratulations to the teams at SpaceX and NASA... This expanded role for the private sector will free up more of NASA's resources to do what NASA does best: tackle the most demanding technological challenges in space," says John Holdren, presidential scitech advisor in a White House statement.

Dragon will spend its first 24 hours matching the orbit and velocity of the International Space Station at an altitude of 340 kilometres. Some 40 hours into the mission Dragon will gingerly approach the ISS, undertaking a series of delicate test manoeuvres and control checks all the while to ensure it poses no puncture risk to the pressurised, crewed ISS. After 75 hours it should be docked to the ISS by the station's giant robot arm.

Ironically, perhaps, Dragon will be guided to the ISS by a UHF radio control unit which was lofted to the ISS by its predecessor, the space shuttle Atlantis on mission STS-129 in November 2009.

The Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon cargo capsule, built for NASA by SpaceX - based in an old Northrop (and later Boeing) aircraft factory in Hawthorne, California - launched on time at 3.44?am EST (8.44 BST). The rocket's nine-engine first stage separated and fell back to the Atlantic Ocean 3 minutes after launch and the second, single-engined stage carrying Dragon arrived on orbit at an altitude of around 300 kilometres some 6 minutes later.

"This succesful launch is good news for NASA, which really does not want to rely so much on Russia for resupply of the space station," says Philip Hylands, an analyst at Ascend, a space flight and aviation consultancy in Heathrow, UK. "If in the next few days the ISS rendezvous and docking also goes sweet as a nut, SpaceX can really concentrate on its forthcoming NASA cargo missions - and then get on with making the Dragon capable of carrying astronauts."

The successful lift-off will also be a shot in the arm for SpaceX's plans to work with expandable space hab provider Bigelow Aerospace of Las Vegas, Nevada - in which the firms aim to jointly provide a one-stop-shop for launches of small private-sector space stations. The Japanese Manned Space System Corporation, which runs the Kibo science module on the ISS for Japanese space agency JAXA, told New Scientist in 2010 that it was considering orbiting such habs and renting them out to space scientists.

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